The world of work continues to mutate, changing with new forms of managerial control, organisation, and technology. The fears expressed in recent years that automation and ever more intelligent robots would render most forms of work obsolete have proven unfounded. Today, many people are working longer hours, more insecurely, and under greater levels of stress than ever before. Work does not seem to be going anywhere.

The pandemic marked a major turning point, shaking up the world of work in ways that are yet to be fully understood. Covid-19 reinforced inequalities, with new divides opening up between sectors, demographic groups, and regions. It also disrupted our practices of work, both showing that the public sector can intervene and regulate to improve working conditions as well as highlighting new possibilities to organise work differently.

This selection of articles focuses on that potential, first with Françoise Gollain’s article on André Gorz, a ground-breaking green thinker who inspires us to think critically about the place of work in our lives. His ideas continue to inform the post-work thinking that drives the working-time reduction and basic income movements today. We also hear from a trade unionist, a youth activist, a feminist, and a sociologist on different aspects of our relationship to work today and how we can change it for the better. Sara Farris calls for a new perspective in our understanding of the crucial but often invisible care work that keeps our societies moving. Pierre Bérastégui explores the possibilities – as well as the unforeseen consequences – of working from home. William Hayward asks whether the generation of young people whose education and early careers were stunted by the pandemic can ever fully recover. Finally, Marguerite van den Berg argues that resistance to exploitative work practices can allow workers to assert their power, and can also lead to a fairer, greener, and more sustainable way of living for society as a whole.